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Once you’ve chosen a Vocation, visit a provisioner for any of your three Professions to purchase tools, recipes, and many ingredients needed by that Profession. (Note: though provisioners carry a wide selection, many items needed for crafting, including some special rare recipes, are found as loot or must be obtained from other players.) Provisioner NPCs are usually located in the vicinity of the Mistresses or Masters of Apprentices, and in many additional towns.

There are two types of professions; gathering and producing. Each profession is interdependent upon another for materials (in most cases), which basically means that you must work together as a crafting team to complete some of your recipes. For more details please visit Crafter interdependence.

Following are details about the ten different Professions that make up LOTRO’s Vocations.
For a guide detailing the relationship between crafting professions and classes see the overview at the bottom of the page.

Cook

"A long march can be made all the easier with the promise of a good meal at the end. While it may seem a mundane talent, a good cook is every adventurer's best friend!"

Cooking is essential for the survival for all peoples of Middle-earth - but especially Hobbits. Any adventurer can tell you that travelling with Hobbits can be a tiresome task if proper meals have not been provided! However, no matter what your race, a cook can provide food that can help you recover from setbacks like wounds and diseases, increase your Power and Morale regeneration in and out of combat, and even give boosts to your Might and Vitality, or other characteristics.

Jeweller

"Simple adornments and objects of beauty are the heart of the jeweller's trade. However, exceptional adornments can go far to increasing the stature and confidence of an adventurer, and a skilled jeweller can produce true works of art."

Creation of a thing of beauty is an act of defiance against the forces of the Enemy. Jewellers can create rings, necklaces, bracelets, and earrings that can be worn by player characters, tokens that ward off the effects of dread, talismans that enable a Lore-master to attract special pets, and Rune-stones weapons for the Rune-keeper. Some jewellers can also create decorative items for the home.

Metalsmith

"Metal armors and sturdy shields are the metalsmith's domain. Though their initial products may be of simple make, eventually their skills
will allow them to work finer materials and greater designs."

As a metalworker, you can craft shields, heavy armour, and high-quality tools. While tools will require additional materials, most armour can be made from a sufficiently large quantity of metal ingots.

Prospector

"Prospectors gather stone and ore from the earth for use in other crafting Vocations."

Prospectors gather and refine metal ore for the Metalsmith, Weaponsmith, and Jeweller professions. While gathering the ore from resource nodes (also known as mining), prospectors may also occasionally find gems, dye salts or other components that are used in other crafting professions. For a comprehensive list of items that may be found in each type of ore deposit, see the Resources page.

Scholar

"Perhaps the most mysterious of the professions, the Scholar collects fragments of lost lore and attempts to interpret their secrets. By doing so, he can create scrolls for other craftsmen to read and improve their chances of producing a superior product. Other practical applications include lore by which specific enemies (orcs, trolls, the dead) might be best combated, dyes, and cures for various maladies."

Scholars can produce a wide variety of scrolls, potions, dyes, and other useful items. Most materials that a scholar uses tend to show up as treasure from humanoid foes. Materials can also be obtained from artifacts, typically found near ancient ruins using the Track Artifacts skill.

Some dye ingredients used by Scholars are crafted by the Farmer. Since the Scholar profession is only available in the Historian vocation, which also includes the Farming profession, the Scholar can simply switch to farming and harvest the required ingredients.

Tailor

"A skilled tailor can make simple clothing from common cloth, but with time and practice they can learn to create garments of great beauty that provide significant protection to their wearer. The Tailor can also work with tanned hides to produce leather armor – light, tough and suitable for travel."

Tailored armour is an essential alternative for those classes that cannot wear heavy armour; for instance, a Burglar whose stealth depends on not clunking around like a tin can, or a Minstrel who needs the freedom of movement to perform motivational flourishes on a delicate instrument. A Tailor produces pieces of light and medium armour that protect the wearer and can provide other bonuses. These pieces range from common rough cloth to the finest Elven silk, depending on the skill of the tailor.

Weaponsmith

"As the name would suggest, the Weaponsmith is the primary source of melee weapons. Swords, daggers, and axes of all varieties are the Weaponsmith's purview, ranging from bronze training gear to mighty weapons of ancient design and great renown."

A hero without a weapon is ineffective against the forces of evil. A Weaponsmith can craft metal weapons using bronze, iron, and steel. These include axes and hatchets for throwing in ranged attacks
as well as the melee weapons: maces, halberds, daggers, axes, swords, and greatswords. Weaponsmiths can also craft specialized burglar trick weapons like stun dust, marbles, and caltrops; shield-spikes for Guardians and Wardens; and many kinds of traps for Hunters.

Woodworker

"As any archer will tell you, it takes more than a stick and a string to make a worthy weapon. The woodworker is an expert bowyer, but expands his trade to include staves, spears, and other hafted weapons. A master Woodworker can produce weapons that even an elven hero would be proud to wield on the battlefield."

Woodworking is the art of carving and whittling weapons from wood. A Woodworker can produce stout clubs, hammers, staves, and spears for melee use, as well as ranged weapons such as bows, crossbows, and javelins and Instruments for the Minstrel, such as clarinets, drums, harps, flutes, lutes, and theorbos. When he has honed his skills enough, the Woodworker can even produce Legendary Items that any hero would be proud to wield.

In his spare time, a woodworker may also whittle horns for use by the Champion, banner crests to inspire the Captain's herald, and intricate shield carvings to empower the Warden, or he can carve Warden battle-hymns and inscribe Rune-keeper parchments. The woodworker can also craft furniture for the home and fishing poles.